An artist's rendering of the Greenwich Historical Society's future campus. The Greenwich Historical Society is located at 39 Strickland Road in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich.

An artist's rendering of the Greenwich Historical Society's future campus. The Greenwich Historical Society is located at 39 Strickland Road in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich.

Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo

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An artist's rendering of the Greenwich Historical Society's current campus, top, and the future campus, bottom. The Greenwich Historical Society is located at 39 Strickland Road in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich. less

An artist's rendering of the Greenwich Historical Society's current campus, top, and the future campus, bottom. The Greenwich Historical Society is located at 39 Strickland Road in the Cos Cob section of ... more

Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo

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A map of the reimagined Greenwich Historical Society campus in Cos Cob .

A map of the reimagined Greenwich Historical Society campus in Cos Cob .

Photo: Contributed Photo

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An artist’s rendering of the restored Toby’s Tavern and the storehouse at the Greenwich Historical Society.

An artist’s rendering of the restored Toby’s Tavern and the storehouse at the Greenwich Historical Society.

Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo

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Greenwich Historical Society embarks on major renovation

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GREENWICH — Greenwich residents will soon be able to step back in time, to the days when John Twachtman, J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam set up their easels on the banks of the harbor and painted the landscapes and buildings of the small fishing village known as Cos Cob.

The Greenwich Historical Society, headquartered in the Bush-Holley House, where Twachtman, Weir and others founded the famed Cos Cob Art Colony, has embarked on an ambitious project to return its complex to its appearance at the turn of the 20th century, when the colony was at its height.

“People will be able to experience, just like the artists did, the beautiful waterfront, and that’s what’s going to make it special and different,” said Davidde Strackbein, chairman of the Historical Society’s board of directors.

Key to the project will be renovation of a house on Strickland Road the society purchased a few years ago. Adjacent to the Bush-Holley House, it will be remade in the image of the railroad hotel and tavern that stood there, beside the old Bush storehouse, starting in the mid-1800s.

“It’s an extraordinary change, even though in the broad scheme it’s not a large change,” Strackbein said. “What it does will unite the entire historic site and go back to the Bush era of the Bush-Holley House. It is a Greenwich historic landmark for one reason only. There are many, many historic houses, but this is the birthplace of American Impressionism in the state of Connecticut.”

The antiquated and cramped archives building on the campus will be demolished, making way for a new archive and gallery structure, in the form of two multistory barns like the ones that once stood there, connected to the tavern by a new entrance.

But if the appearance of the complex will be moving back in time, indoors will be all about moving the Historical Society into the present and future.

New archive spaces will be equipped with climate and humidity controls and an air lock to protect the society’s collection of artifacts.

The renovated storehouse, between the Bush-Holley House and tavern building, will house office staff and operations. The tavern interior will include a visitor information desk, shop and cafe.

“We need to realize the society’s vision for a dynamic campus that will place Greenwich’s story indelibly within the broad context of American history, while providing an all-important bridge to the future for generations to come,” said Peter Malkin, a longtime supporter of the Historical Society and chairman of the project’s capital campaign. The new campus will be entirely handicapped-accessible.

Two new exhibition spaces will be created, one for changing exhibitions, the other for the society’s collection.

“More people are going to be able to see it and that’s key,” Malkin said.

Ground has already been broken on the expansion of the parking lot. The complex renovation will begin in earnest in 2017 with a goal of completion in 2018.

The society officially launched its $18.5 million Reimagine the Campus capital campaign Thursday night at the Round Hill Club. Private donors have agreed to match all money raised.

Fairfield-based architect David Scott Parker, whose work includes restoration of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, said the opportunity to work on the Historical Society complex was particularly exciting because of the role it plays in the community.

“It all started with research into the site, which is the only national historic landmark in Greenwich,” Parker said. “I wanted to understand what the organization is and where it’s going and how to bring the past, the present and the future together.”

The area around the Bush-Holley House was a bustling hub of activity at the end of the 19th century.

Markets and mills did brisk business where the land met the water, and the artists who drew inspiration from French painters like Renoir, Monet and Manet captured it all in a soft, watery light.

“The society has a role to play in Greenwich but it also has a role to play nationally,” Parker said. “What we wanted the new facility to do was introduce visitors to this place and make the entrance a portal that frames views of the site and, at the same time, becomes part of the larger complex.”

A key element of the project is to expand the Greenwich Historical Society’s educational programs.

“We want to open our doors and share the history and bring a multitude of children in,” Strackbein said. “A major initiative in the state of Connecticut is for people to learn from original source documents. If they touch it, if they feel it, if they know ‘this is the street they live in and the house they’re from,’ there’s some sort of an empathy which occurs that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

The Historical Society works with Hamilton Avenue School to provide educational programs for students there, an effort Malkin said could be expanded to Julian Curtiss and New Lebanon schools. All are Title I schools, which receive federal funding to help improve the education of low-income students.

“All of the activities and innovations are bound by one crucial concept and that is the importance of education to the Historical Society,” Executive Director Debra Mecky said.

While the look of the Greenwich Historical Society is going to be different, Strackbein said one thing will not change.

“The core of our mission is to preserve and share and educate about the history of Greenwich,” she said. “All the maps and all the documents will be beautifully preserved, and you’ll be able to use them in an extraordinary research center. People will love it.”